Everything Rose Wanted to Know About Time Lords
by KissHerJack
Summary: Summary: She knew he wouldn't answer a barrage of questions, so she slides them in whenever she can. And when she puts all the pieces together, she is blown away by the BIG answers he never actually said. Next in UNSEEN AND IN BETWEEN 10/Rose
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Everything Rose Wanted to Know About Time Lords, and Apparently Wasn't Afraid to Ask**

Author: Gail R. Delaney

**Series: The Unseen and In Between**

Genre: Romance/Angst/Hurt/Comfort – a lot of things going on

Setting: Throughout Series Two beginning after _Age of Steel_, with references back to other stories in the series, ie: _Two Steps Forward, One Back_ and _Driving Lessons_.

Summary: She knew he wouldn't answer a barrage of questions, so she slides them in whenever she can. And when she puts all the pieces together, she is blown away by the BIG answers he never actually said.

**These are the questions... the 'real' answers will come in a follow-up fic titled _Fathers and Sons_ which will be posted in a day or two.**

**Lesson One**

"Why do you have sex with me?"

The Doctor looked up from tying his trainers, and stilled with the laces in his hands. The question itself was unusual, to say the least, but more the fact that Rose asked it standing in the bathroom doorway dressed in nothing but knickers and a camisole-thing.

"I should think that's quite obvious."

Deep lines creased her forehead beneath the damp tendrils of her hair, and she crossed her arms over her body, effectively shoving her breasts upward. She obviously had spent the last several minutes contemplating this question in the shower.

"Time Lords don't have sex. You said so."

"Well? I _said _that there was no purpose for it. We don't use sex for procreation, and most Time Lords think it to be primitive."

"Oh, so cuz I'm an ape it's okay."

The Doctor scowled. Half an hour ago, they had been lying in bed barely able to move from the intensity of their union, and now he was somehow the object of her anger. "No. I am pretty sure I never even implied that."

"So, why do you have sex with me?"

The Doctor finished tying his shoe and stood, but kept his distance. He contemplated his words _very carefully _, hoping to tame whatever dragon she had by the tail. "We're lovers because I want to be with you. And I'm _pretty sure _you want to be with me, too."

"Nine hundred years and you never wanted sex, and I come along and you do."

"Well, am also pretty sure I never said I _hadn't _had sex in nine hundred years. I just said I hadn't had sex with any of my companions. I'm _also _not saying I had a lot of sex, and I feel I should make that clarification early on so as to not cause a problem later. I'm just saying that it was rather infrequent, and not all that satisfying, honestly. Probably why it didn't happen very often." He took a tentative step toward her. "And, Rose, you and I share something that is so far beyond sex there is actually no word for it. Literally, there is no word in any language."

She didn't say anything, but a small tremor moved through her, just visible because he watched her so intently. Her lips pressed together and her hands were clenched, she looked ready to pop.

"Rose, perhaps if you tell me what you've been thinking about I can better answer your question."

"You told me we didn't break any rules."

"We didn't."

"You told me Time Lords don't have sex."

"It's not a _rule_, Rose. It just… is." He took another step. "Well, okay. There _are _rules, or _were_, but that is more about inter-species relations…" He immediately cursed his propensity to ramble, because if she was paying attention at all — and he was quite sure she was — she caught it.

"Humans?"

"Any... species... actually."

She made a frustrated sound and pressed her hand to her forehead, turning partially away.

"Rose, honestly, if you look on _Xenophobia _in the Encyclopedia Galactica, there will be a _huge _picture of the entire Time Lord Council, every cardinal in full robes and headdresses. They practically put the people of Krickett to shame." She pulled a 'what?' face and he waved it off. "Nevermind. The point is, they wanted Time Lords to be _so _separate from everyone else, they even frowned on intimate relations between Time Lords and Gallifrey citizens."

She glared at him... actually _glared _at him, and for all the lives of him, he couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong.

"What happened if you did?"

The Doctor sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets. "Why does this matter?"

"Because it does."

He tipped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Aaaah, because it's not _law_, there's no formal punishment _. _ It's not like you were tossed in prison for shagging someone. But, there were usually sanctions, lectures, limitations, depending on the extent of the external fraternization."

Rose arched her eyebrows.

He sighed heavily. "And once... just once... a Time Lord was effectively stripped of his..." He tipped his chin and puffed his cheeks. "Time Lordiness. His TARDIS was decommissioned, his remaining ability to regenerate suppressed, and he was forced to remain on Gallifrey to face --" He winced this time, because what he had to say, he'd heard so many times. "-- the product of his indiscretion."

She eyed him, and he waited... wondering what tangent this sudden conversation would take next. "I'm worth the risk?"

"There's really no r—" He fumbled and stopped, thinking about her question more before he barreled into an answer. The Doctor reached out and laid his hands on her shoulders. "Yes, Rose. You're worth the risk. You're the only one worth it." She smiled, just a little. "Now, are you going to tell me what brought this on?"

Color rose in her cheeks and she pulled her lower lip through her teeth. "When I was in the shower... I was thinking about the first time we did the mind joining when we made love."

He rounded his lips. "Ooooh. Thinking about it."

She nodded. "Yeah. Thinkin' about you." She ran her hands over his stomach, unbuttoning his suit jacket to slip her hands inside. "I was thinking about what you said, and I just... remembered. I guess I was too distracted at the time to ask."

"Distracted is good." With almost beautifully choreographed steps, they walked to the bed still facing each other and he turned her when they reached the edge, catching her lips in a kiss as his hands slid over her bottom before reaching for the mattress to ease them down. 'Distracted is very good."


	2. Chapter 2

**Lesson Two**

"So, if you're a Time Lord, you're from Gallifrey. But, just because you're from Gallifrey that doesn't mean you're a Time Lord."

"Right."

They walked side-by-side through a crowded market on a technology-challenged-but-not-completely-obsolete planet on the outer edge of the Mutter's Spiral. A short, stocky man with oily hair and a smudged apron shouted from behind his booth that he had Daruhvian Ostrich Eggs, while a woman wearing no less than five dresses over each other - all in rags - called out that she had the finest woven silver neckplates in all the galaxy.

Rose glanced at the necklaces as they walked by, but they looked more like bundles of barbed wire than anything she'd want to wear.

"What brought on the question?" he asked.

"I don't know. Thought association, I guess," she answered absently as she looked ahead of them. Further down, there was a shop with reams of multi-colored fabric on giant bolts and baskets of beads that twinkled in the sunlight.

"Thought association. Right. So, me saying I need to stop by and get a mercury filter led you to a question about Time Lords?"

Rose laughed, and shook her head. "No. When you said you needed the filter, I said I thought we had some. And you said that what you had was a mercury liquid filter, and not a mercury steam filter. All mercury filters filter mercury, but not all mercury filters filter steam mercury."

He arched one eyebrow, which made the other eye blink. "Right. Of course. It's obvious now."

Rose nudged him with her elbow. "I was thinking that it reminded me of when I took logic in school. You know… if she's in the house, then she can't see the moon. But, if she can't see the moon, that doesn't mean she's in the house."

"That's how they teach you conditional logic? No wonder humans are struggling to build a better mousetrap, forget rockets," he mumbled, looking annoyed at the whole concept.

"You're missing the path."

"Actually, I see the path quite clearly. If all Time Lords are Gallifreyan, and I am a Time Lord, then I am Gallifreyan. However, that does not necessarily answer the question if all Gallifreyans are Time Lords, it's one way conditional."

"Right, so all Time Lords are Gallifreyan."

He drew a breath in through his teeth, which she'd learned was his 'Yes, well, you'd think so, wouldn't you...' sound. "At least in theory."

Rose looked up at him, but he didn't look in her direction, continuing down the aisle between booths. "Oh! Here we are! Mercury-Filters-A-Palooza."

While he bartered with the tall, thin man — he had to clear at least seven feet easy — Rose wandered to the booths on either side of the aisle. Every few minutes, she felt the Doctor's gaze as he sought her out, and she'd look back at him with a smile. No, she hadn't wandered off. When he came to her, she was inspecting a small gold fob with pretty engravings around the edge.

"Look at this, Doctor. It changes color with the weather."

"Haven't seen one of these in years," he said, taking it from her hand and tossing it in the air. "Bezoolium, right? Course, never really found the need to predict the weather. If I land and it's raining, I don't get out of the TARDIS." He grinned and put it back in her hand.

"Mum would love this. She's always complainin' 'bout the weatherman. This would be bang on every time. No more complaining."

His eyebrows shot up. "No more complaining from Jackie Tyler. We'll take it!"

With their purchases in one hand, and Rose's hand held in the other, they headed back through the market. The TARDIS was parked in a quiet alley several streets over, but the walk was pleasant. A soft breeze blew through the low buildings of the city, carrying the occassional whiff of something cooking. Rose watched him out of the corner of her eye.

"I can practically hear the cogs churning," he said, squeezing her fingers. "What are you thinking about?"

"Does it bother you that I ask?"

He didn't answer right away, and Rose held her breath. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him, but she wanted to know about him... understand him. And he didn't volunteer anything that she didn't prod out of him first. So, she had to ask. Finally, he shook his head.

"No." He finally did look at her, and while there was a smile on his lips, his eyes didn't quite convince her. "It doesn't bother me. Sometimes, I don't like to answer. But, I always will."


	3. Chapter 3

**Lesson Three**

"In here!"

Rose ran into the narrow alleyway between the impossibly close buildings, her lungs burning and her head swimming at the lack of oxygen. They hit a turn in the alley, and he pulled her in behind him, effectively hiding them from the mob of people running by in the street.

Rose doubled over, gripping her knees as she sucked in air. With a sudden lurch, she stumbled forward and leaned over a rotten wood crate and threw up. Her legs buckled, but the Doctor caught her before she hit the filthy ground.

"Easy. Draw deep breaths, don't rush them."

She sat on something, what she didn't know. Didn't care. The muscles in her thighs twitched and pulsed and her arms felt like dead weights. They had done a lot of running in two years... an exorbitant amount of running... but never had she run so far for so long. They had to have covered at least three kilometers, and how they'd managed to lose the angry mob, she hadn't a clue.

The Doctor crouched in front of her, and pressed his fingers to her wrist. "Heart is still pounding too hard. Take deep, slow breaths, Rose."

"I'm trying," she ground out. "Oh, god. I feel sick again."

He fished around in one of his coat pockets and produced a bottle of water. It wasn't cold, but Rose didn't care. It was wet. He had to open it because her arms lacked the strength to twist the cap. Right then, she wasn't sure she'd be able to lift the bottle to her lips.

"Sip it. Sip it."

She swished the first sip through her mouth, spitting it out. Once she'd gotten some of the water into her, and she didn't feel like she was breathing through wet cheesecloth, Rose nodded so he knew she was doing better. Some of the tight lines of worry around his eyes eased, but not by much.

"You could have the courtesy to at least breathe hard," she snarled, annoyed, as she took another sip.

"Respiratory Bypass System," he said, motioning back and forth in front of his chest. "It kicks in when I'm not getting enough oxygen. In the case of long distance running, it supplements my lungs. Put that with two hearts, and I can go a bit."

Rose sat back, putting her shoulders against the wall behind her. _Damn, she was tired._

"Just rest a bit. We'll wait until dark and sneak out of here."

Rose rolled her head against the wall. "You know, you blame me for being jeopardy friendly... I think you're a jeopardy magnet."

"Me? The people of this primitive planet have no problem with people who have 'sort of brown' hair... it's blondes they don't like. You she-devil, you."

"Yeah, but who landed here?"

He hissed through his teeth. "Got me there, I suppose." The Doctor patted her knee. "It'll be a few hours until dark."

Rose closed her eyes.

She woke up with a jerk, immediately regretting the attempt to move. Her limbs ached and her head pounded. The Doctor stood at the corner, glancing down the narrow alley they had escaped down. It was times like this that she really saw the differences between them, well that and the whole changing bodies thing, but since that didn't happen on every other landing... it was the physical differences that made her think.

"So, the super lungs and double hearts..." Her voice snapped his attention back, and he immediately walked back to her, producing another bottle of water. _Dang those magical pockets_. "S'at a Gallifrey thing or a Time Lord thing?"

He handed her the open bottle, and didn't say anything when she took several deep swallows. "Little of both. All people of Gallifrey have two hearts and the bypass system, but Time Lords are kind of like version 2.0."

He'd gotten used to her random questions, and barely blinked at them most of the time. Rose handed the bottle to him, and he took a sip himself. "How else are you different than the run of the mill Gallifreyan?"

The Doctor stood beside her, leaning back against the wall with one foot resting on the toe of his now-dirty trainers. This planet was muddy. Very, very muddy. "Well, there's the obvious. Regeneration. Requires an recessive gene that is activated upon selection."

"Selection," she mumbled. She was tired, but wanted to stay awake in case they needed to move soon. "So, how are you selected? I thought you were bred to be Time Lords, right?"

"_Well_, it's like you said before, Rose. Not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords. Not all Gallifreyans _bred_ to be Time Lords become Time Lords, and on the rare occasion, an un-bred Gallifreyan actually becomes a Time Lord. Fluke of genetics."

"So, what gets you selected and what gets you unselected?"

"Tests." He closed his eyes and shudders, shaking his entire body. "Lessons. Exams. Studies." He puffed his cheeks and looked up to the slowly darkening sky. "And failing those… you are effectively unselected." He said the last with a click of his teeth together.

"And the exception?"

The Doctor looked down at her. "What do you mean?"

"There's always been an exception. No one is ever punished – except one Time Lord. Time Lords are bred, except when they're not. If they fail, they're not allowed to be a Time Lord…." She watched his face. "Except when they are. Has a potential Time Lord ever failed and still become a Time Lord?"

He pushed away from the wall, and began fishing around in his pockets. "There are always exceptions to the rules, Rose. Depends on how badly one wants the exception, I suppose. Aha!" He pulled from his pocket a large silk scarf in a deep blue with gold and black swirls. "Just the trick. Not the greatest fashion statement, but we can't always look good when running for our lives."

The sun had disappeared behind the tops of the buildings, and darkness settled quickly over the city. Rose groaned when the Doctor held his hand out to her, and whined when he pulled her to her feet.

"I promise to avoid running as much as possible. If I'm not mistaken, the TARDIS is about four blocks east and three blocks north. If we're not stopped, and if we're not chased, we should be there in about an hour."

She pouted, she screwed her eyes shut, she whimpered… but he still wrapped the blue scarf around her hair, tucking it in to hide every bit of her hair. When they reached the TARDIS, she was going to soak in the tub for no less than three hours until all the aches and pains were gone.

"Whining is not attractive."

"I don't care," she huffed, and practically stomped as he let her from the alley. Or, she would have practically stomped if it didn't hurt so much.


	4. Chapter 4

**Lesson Four**

(Takes Place after _Driving Lessons _– Posted Separately)

The Doctor stood on the narrow edge of the console that wrapped around the piston chamber, balancing precariously as he reached over his head to snag one of the long bits of tubing hanging down from the ceiling. He managed to wrap his fingers around the tubing he needed, and gave it a solid tug, uncoiling several lengths of it from a bundle near the ceiling.

Bits of dust rained down on Rose, and she batted them away.

"You need to get a cleaning lady in," she mumbled.

"Not exactly the easiest place to hoover, you know."

Rose slouched down in the jumpseat, watching the Doctor's slow and balance-defying traverse of the piston chamber as he tried to reach the tubing he wanted. She was bored, pure and simple. He said these repairs needed to be completed before they landed anywhere, and he'd said that two days before. The last place they'd been was Shireen's wedding, and while it had been fun, it lacked the usual edge of adventure.

Rose bit at her thumbnail cuticles, glancing up at him again. He was on the other side of the chamber, his trainers on each side of the pistons, reaching high over his head.

"Do Time Lords get married?"

"What?" he sputtered, high pitched, then his foot slipped and he flailed to get his arms around the piston chamber. "Oh, bollocks."

Rose lunged off the jump seat. "Careful!" Panic popped his eyes open and his foot slipped again. In a flash of brown pinstripe, he fell backward and disappeared behind the console with a loud clatter, a strange beeping hiss from the control panel, and a loud grunt from the floor. "Doctor!"

He was sprawled out on the floor, arms and legs spread eagle, with the coiled tubing covering his face and chest. Rose pushed the tubing aside and leaned over him, her heart pounding. "Doctor?" She touched his cheek, but his eyes were closed. "Doctor!"

With a sharp intake of air, he jerked awake, immediately wincing and putting his hand behind his head. "Ow, that's going to leave a mark."

"Are you all right?"

He scowled at her and slowly sat up, hissing. "I'm fine." Rose tried to help him stand but he moved clear of her hands, grabbing the edge of the console to pull himself to his feet. The controls still beeped, and he threw several switches to make the sound stop. The TARDIS lurched slightly, then settled into hovering once again.

The Doctor kicked the tubing aside to pick up the sonic screwdriver that he'd dropped when he fell, then bundled the tubing up, moving past her to sit on the jumpseat.

"You sore at me?"

"No," he answered sharply, fishing his specs from his pocket before going to work on a tubing coupler.

"I just asked a question."

He dropped his hands into his lap, loops of the tubing scraping on the grated floor. "I'm trying to fix the mercury steam filter, Rose. If this gets clogged… BOOM! Not good. You don't want a TARDIS with a bad case of vapors."

"I was just making conversation. I was bored."

"You don't just..." He stuttered around his words, a sure sign that he was either exceptionally angry or exceptionally excited. " _blurt _something like that out, Rose. Not when I'm--" He motioned toward the piston chamber, leaving his explanation at that.

"You told me I could ask questions."

"You _can _... just..."

He didn't finish the stipulations and went back to his repairs. Rose crossed to the jump seat and sat beside him, watching but saying nothing. She wanted to apologize for making him fall, but she was too annoyed at his reaction.

After a few minutes, he huffed and lowered the tubing again. "Fine. If you're going to be that way..."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" He looked at her over the top of his specs. "Did your mother teach you that? Sit there and stare until the victim of your glare crumbles and confesses?"

"I was just making conversation!" Rose declared again, and slouched deeper into the jump seat. "Sorry I brought it up at all."

"Well, you have now. Can't just leave it, can I?"

"Fine by me."

He snorted. Rose huffed, and chewed on her thumb cuticles. The only sound in the control room was the underlying hum of the engines and the occasional whistle of the sonic screwdriver. They needed to _go _somewhere and _do _something, or she might go bonkers. It was hard to believe that once upon a time, she'd go two weeks doing nothing but work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep... now, she couldn't go more than a couple days without an adventure.

"No," he said, breaking the silence. "Time Lords don't marry."

He didn't turn from his repairs, his attention intent on the clog in the tubing. Rose shifted, sitting up straighter as she folded her legs under her. She waited a few moments, not wanting to seem like she was pushing.

"Why not?"

"It served no purpose. Time Lords don't procreate. They don't require the companionship of a single individual, in theory." The last bit he more mumbled than spoke. "And they learned early on that regeneration could be a problem."

"Why's that?"

"Change. You marry one person, then you've got someone else."

"You changed." He finally looked up from the tubing, meeting her eyes over the rims of his specs. "It didn't matter."

The Doctor watched her for several moments, and she smiled. A small smile touched his lips and she scooted just a little closer, wanted to feel nearer to him. "Maybe not once," he added. "But, imagine marrying someone and having them change. You can accept that, but then _you _change. And then _they _change again. Back and forth thirteen times in the matter of a thousand or so years. By the end, you barely resemble who you started out as."

"Sounds sad. Did they used to marry?"

"In the beginning, yeah. They were just like everyone else on Gallifrey at first, just considered the advanced and somewhat elite. But, that was thousand and thousand and thousands of years ago. Generations ago."

His voice had become monotone, as if he were rattling off bits of his history lesson. If it were that long ago, she figured it probably was. Like her rattling off information on Queen Victoria, 'cept of course that she'd met Queen Victoria. She grinned a little at the memory.

"What about marrying someone that wasn't a Time Lord? Just a normal person? Just... some ordinary Gallifrey girl or boy?"

He tipped his chin, studying the tubing over the top of his specs, and she wondered just how much good they really did him. His expression was flat, almost blank, his voice even flatter. "What, and have a normal every day domestic life? Home for dinner every night, bedtime stories and bath time, tuck the kids into bed, go off to work at the Citadel every morning?"

"Yeah."

He swallowed and flipped on the sonic screwdriver. "Time Lords don't do domestic."

With a gurgle and a pop, the tubing cleared and the Doctor hurtled to his feet, climbing back onto the console. Before hefting himself up again, he looked back at her expectantly. Rose lifted her hand to her lips and turned an invisible key, then grinned. He smiled and climbed, but as she watched him, the weight in the air was nearly smothering.


	5. Chapter 5

**Lesson Five**

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to stay in bed?" the Doctor asked, practically scowling as he tugged Rose's favorite chenille socks on her feet. "It's all big and soft and comfy. And close to the console room."

Rose tried to laugh, but ended up coughing instead, grabbing a tissue from the endless box on the bedside table. The cough turned into a sneeze, which turned into a sniffle and a deep, tired sigh. He crouched in front of her, his eyebrows pulled down tight over his eyes as he watched her.

"I need to be somewhere _else_," she tried to explain, though her voice sounded like someone pinched her nose, very hard. "I've been in this room for two days, and frankly, I'm sick of it."

He continued to scowl.

"Please? The TARDIS will tell you if I need you, right?"

He nodded, but didn't seem pleased about it. "You humans. Getting sick at the drop of a hat."

"I was standing knickers-deep in cold water for three hours," she tried to argue, but her voice cracked and completely disappeared right around 'three hours'. She huffed and wiped her nose. "Please," she whispered.

He rolled his eyes and tipped his head back and forth. "Fine. Come on, then. Allons-y."

Rose held out her hand for him to help her to her feet, but instead he took her hand and guided her arm behind his shoulders, scooping her up off the bed with a small squeak from Rose. She thought she probably should protest, but she didn't have the energy to do it, and even if she did, her lack of voice would be less than convincing.

He carried her effortlessly to the end of the hall and down the rounded staircase leading down to the main level of the library. A warm fire already glowed in the fireplace and the thick-cushioned settee had moved just a little closer. The Doctor set her down carefully, fluffing pillows behind her shoulders and head before she leaned back.

"Do you need anything? Tea? Crackers? Hot Chocolate? Nothing like a good cup of hot chocolate when you're under the weather."

Rose shook her head and rubbed her nose with her tissue. She noted the fresh box on the table positioned just within reach and a small rubbish bin beside it. Between the Doctor and the TARDIS, they'd taken care of everything. "Not just now. Maybe in a bit."

He leaned over her, bracing his arm on the back of the couch, and touched a kiss to her forehead. As soon as she heard his trainers on the stairs, she scooted deeper into the couch and tugged the soft knit afghan off the back of the cushions, tucking it close to her chin.

The yarn was soft. She rubbed it against her cheek, and inhaled the delicate scent of clean soap that clung to the threads. There was a hint of something else, a floral and citrus mingling like a light perfume. She hadn't seen the blanket before, and with her eyes half-closed in sleep, she studied it. It was handmade, the stitches just uneven enough so she knew no machine made it, and it probably wasn't a creation of the TARDIS'. The yarns were creamy, light blues and a deep, rich blue like the TARDIS, but faded with age.

Rose smiled and looked toward the fire. She was close enough to feel the radiant heat, but not too close. Just perfect.

Just as she felt the first tendrils of sleep pushing her into the couch cushions, a small voice whispered near her hear. "Pretty Rose not feeling very pretty?"

Rose blinked her eyes open, and smiled immediately. It had been months since she'd first seen the blonde-haired, blue-eyed manifestation of the TARDIS. And that had been the only time. Once in awhile, she thought she caught a glimpse of something on the edge of her vision, but never quite saw the little girl.

"No, I'm not feeling very pretty," she mumbled, wishing she weren't so exhausted so she could enjoy the visit. And part of her wished the Doctor would come back so he could see her, too.

The little girl shook her head. "He's busy. Keeping hands busy so mind won't worry too much about Pretty Rose. Worries, worries, worries." Her words were a gentle admonishment and when she shook her head, her hair wisped across her cheeks.

"No banging?"

The child's face lit up. "No banging. All my parts are perfect, as perfectly perfect as can be expected for a ship so old as me. _So old_... he tells me." The little girl made a face, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, mocking the Doctor.

"It's not polite to make fun of a girl's age."

She giggled, hiding her lips behind her hand, shaking her head. "Not polite at all. He can be very, very rude." With a little hop, she sat on the edge of the couch at Rose's side, her little bare feet swinging just above the carpet. "But, he can also be very sweet. Yes, Pretty Rose?"

Rose nodded, feeling sleep pulling at her. The child leaned over her, getting very close to her nose. "Would you like me to read you a story, Pretty Rose? I am very good at bedtime stories. Very, very good."

The idea of a sentient transdimensional time traveling police public call box being good at telling bedtime stories made Rose giggle. Which made the little girl giggle. And the laugh was beautiful, like tinkling bells and starsong. The little girl hopped down again, her feet making no noise as she ran across the library, her blonde hair streaming behind her. Today her dress was blue, but pale to the point of almost being white. She ran to the corner of the library, and Rose expected her to take a book from one of the shelves. But instead, she reached over her head and turned the knob of a door that blended so well into the shelves of books Rose hadn't ever seen it before. Of course, it might not have been there since the TARDIS had a way of changing on a whim if she so chose.

The door squeaked open as if the hinges hadn't moved in a very long time, and the girl disappeared into the dark room beyond. Rose squinted, trying to see what was beyond the doorway, but all she saw was blackness and shadows. The little girl appeared again, shutting the door behind her.

Once again perched beside Rose, the child TARDIS opened the antique-looking storybook. The cover looked to be leather, with gold inlaid at the binding. The leather creaked and the pages rustled like dry leaves on the wind. Taking on a serious expression, as if this story was the most important thing in the universe, the little girl started to read.

"There was once a poor miller who had a beautiful daughter; and one day, having to go speak with the King, he said, in order to make himself appear of consequence, that he had a daughter who could spin straw into gold."

Rose drifted in and out of sleep for a bit, hearing the child's voice each time her consciousness broke away from sleep enough to register the sound.

"'Are you called Rumplestilskin?' 'A witch has told you! A witch has told you!' shrieked the little man and stamped his right foot so hard into the ground with rage that he could not draw it out again. Then he took hold of his left leg with both his hands, and pulled away so hard that his right came off in the struggle, and he hopped away howling terribly. And from that day to this the Queen has heard no more of her troublesome visitor."

The little girl closed the book, her attention darting to the upper level hall that led back to the bedroom and console room. "Oh! He's coming! I'm not paying attention and he's not able to do his work." She laughed and hopped off the bed, running to the door tucked in the corner of the room.

Rose sat up, immediately regretting it when the pressure in her sinuses shifted. "Hold on." She curled forward, holding her head in her hands. "Bloody hell," she mumbled, wishing her head would just explode and be done with it.

"Easy now." The Doctor's hand curled across her forehead and she pressed it there with both hands, enjoying the cooling touch. He eased her back into the pillows again, but Rose kept trying to see around him. He looked over his shoulder, and back to her. "What are you looking at?

"What's behind that door?" Rose asked, pointing past his hips to the door tucked away in the bookshelves.

"There's no door there," he said without turning around.

"Would you just _look_?" she practically growled, waving her finger in the direction she needed him to turn.

He did look, she was sure just appease her, but immediately spun around, striding across the room. "Hello. What's this?" As he reached for the knob, the door slid away from him and disappeared into the bookshelves. The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the place on the wall that had been the jamb just moments before. He looked at the glowing blue tip. "Slight residual temporal remnants," he mumbled. "Like she didn't just move the room in space within the TARDIS, but she shifted it in time."

"You don't know what was there?"

The Doctor shook his head, taking out his specs, squinting at the bookshelves. "No idea. Which isn't something I get to say very often. When did it show up? After I brought you down from the bedroom?"

Rose nodded, shifting so she was more sitting than lying down. "Yeah. I had a visitor."

"What do you mean?"

"Who else would be visiting me _in the TARDIS_, Doctor..."

In one smooth motion, he turned off the screwdriver and slipped it in his pocket. He crossed the space and sat at her feet, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. "Certainly explains things. I've been trying to run a sub-routine through the Vortex Analysis, and nothing has happened. She's not paying attention to me... she's paying attention to you."

Rose laughed and tossed the blanket across the back of the couch. "She read me a bedtime story. _Rumplestiltskin_. Got the book out of whatever room was on the other side of that door." She nodded toward the non-existent doorway.

"Really..." The Doctor looked back toward the door, the tip of his tongue pressed against the back of his upper teeth. "Twice in as many minutes I have to say I do not know the answer to something. And that troubles me. Immensely." He was talking, but his voice was distant... like his brain was working too hard to let him speak normally. He looked upward. "What are you hiding, eh?"

"Oh, she just likes to tease. She has her own secrets. Like how old she really is..." His attention shifted back to her, and he arched a single eyebrow. "Oh, don't look like that. It's not polite to tease a girl about her age."

He grinned and started to say something, but just as quickly, he stopped and his mouth stayed open, his gaze settling on the blanket. Very slowly, as if he expected it to disappear before he could touch it, he reached out and curled his fingers into the soft yarn, pulling it from the back of the couch. "Where did you get this?" His voice was so low, she barely heard him.

"It was here." Rose sniffed and coughed. "I thought you brought it. Or, the TARDIS, or whatever." He bolted from the couch and was half way up the stairs before Rose could shout out after him. But by then he was gone.

Bracing herself against the pounding of her head, and the slight shift of the room when she stood, Rose made her way slowly to the stairs. By the time she reached the landing, she heard his barely-reined-in shouting from the console room. She eased down the hallway, her hand skimming along the wood walls, trying to make out his voice as she moved closer.

"Stop it. Please, just _stop it_," he said harshly, his voice strained as he tried to keep it low. "The past is the past, and nothing is going to change _any _of it."

She made it to the door and leaned against the jamb, just stepping beneath the arch. His back was to her, the blanket gripped tight in his hand. A subtle hum shifted in the air, and Rose knew the TARDIS said something, but this time, she wasn't privy to that side of the argument.

The Doctor's head dropped forward, his shoulders dropped. "Can't you just... please. Don't you understand what it does to me to remember?"

The TARDIS' voice was just a whisper, and Rose wondered if she heard it only because the TARDIS wanted her to. _Precious Rose will stop the pain. __  
_  
"She already has." His voice was rough, thick, and raw. "In _so_ many ways."

_Forever Rose will help. Help like I can't. I can't read you bedtime stories anymore, Rumplestiltskin. __  
_  
The Doctor chuckled softly. Rose held her breath when he lifted the blanket to his nose and inhaled. "I can still smell her. Nearly nine hundred years, and I can still smell her."

Then the voice was a nudge. _Rose. __  
_  
He turned around, dropping the blanket slowly from his face. She wanted to say something, to tell him the TARDIS was right, but she must have looked about as bad as she felt, because he didn't give her a chance to say anything. He crossed the space of the console room in three long strides, and pulled her against him before her legs gave way.

"Will you ever listen to me?" he asked with a tone that said he didn't expect an answer. He scooped her up in his arms again, and carried her to the bedroom, nudging the door open with his foot. "Stay in bed. It's not that hard a concept. Stay in bed, get some rest, and get _better_."

Just like that, in the time it took her to nuzzle her face against the side of his neck, the subject that never really got started was closed. She didn't ask any questions this time, hearing and seeing more than she ever would if she had.


	6. Chapter 6

**Lesson Six**

"Is that what Cassandra the Skin Flap meant when she said humans weren't humans anymore? They were mutations?"

"You remember her saying that?" the Doctor asked, draping his coat over one of the coral beams in the control room.

"Yeah, but I guess I just didn't think about it until now. I mean... some of the... combinations we saw were just... bizarre."

"Did you see the baby with the prickly things on his..." The Doctor waved his hand over his head, his eyes wide and a grin on his face.

"Yeah! Oh, God." Rose shuddered as she hopped into the jump seat, settling in while he prepared the TARDIS for flight. They'd visited a new colony on the outskirts of a nebula where the colonists prided themselves on the copious crossing of species to create a new society. "Wouldn't want to be on the birthing end of that one." She shuddered again.

"Well, I'm sure certain accommodations have to be made in some cases. Just as the..." He puffed his cheeks, dipping his chin. "Act of conception requires some interesting approaches from time to time, the gestation and birthing have to be adjusted for the particular mutation."

Rose shook her head. "Did you see that..." She couldn't even describe the alien she had seen. So, she held up her arm to indicate height, then width, and a big horn protruding from his forehead.

"The red one?"

"Yes!" She clapped her hands and pointed at him. "What was he?"

"New life," he said with a shrug. "He was half Sentaulain, half Nubi Ranif Corabora Piff. Should be interesting. His mate is three-quarters human, one quarter Torabelian. She had those lovely brow ridges that were painted different colors."

"Oh, sure. She was gorgeous." Rose pulled her legs up into the jump seat to sit cross-legged, wrapping her hands around her ankles. "What a wonderful idea. Just let anyone from anywhere come and just..."

"Breed to their heart's content?" the Doctor said with a smirk, looking up from the monitor.

"Well, yeah, that too. But, I mean... they all just _lived _together. No fighting. No wars. They all spoke the same language, they all just _got along_. It was great. We can't even manage to get along with the other countries on Earth, let alone other species."

"Oh, that come eventually." The Doctor came around the console to stand in front of her, leaning back on the edge, ankles crossed and hands pushed into his pockets. "You remember what I said about Captain Jack and the 51st century?"

"That by then, the human race was out there _dancin' _with anyone and everyone."

The Doctor smirked again, and she wondered if he was remembering their pseudo-dance in the basement of that hospital in World War II England. "Right. By the 51st Century, humans had spread out to all parts of the galaxy, covering every corner of the Mutter's Spiral... and they'd enjoyed themselves quite a bit along the way. The human race wasn't British or American or Italian or East Asian Alliance... they were just humans."

Rose leaned back, releasing a soft sigh. "That does sound nice."

The Doctor swirled away, flipping some switches on the maintenance boards... she was learning, slowly... but she was learning... before reading some swirling text on the monitor. She'd also figured out that the control read outs on the screen were in Gallifreyan, which was why the TARDIS didn't translate. It was his language, why translate? He hadn't told her that... but, she was also good at jigsaw puzzles.

"Around the end of the 52nd Century, humans began to actively manipulate their DNA so that it would be receptive to cross-species breeding. Course, some had happened before that in cases where the two species were compatible enough to allow a pregnancy to term. Wouldn't have happened between a human and a Nubi Ranif Corabora Piff, for example." He glanced up, tipping his head toward the door. "By the time this lot decided to create a colony, just about anyone could breed with anyone..." He pulled a face. "Once you were willing to look past horns and other hard, protruding parts."

"I kind of like hard, protruding parts," Rose said softly, sticking the point of her tongue out the corner of her lips.

The Doctor leaned sideways to see her around the engine piston chamber. "Feeling a little cheeky tonight, Miss Tyler?"

"Maaaaaybe."

"Well, hold that thought. I just have some minor system scans to initiate." He slipped on his specs and looked at her over the top. "You can go on, if you'd like. I won't be long."

Rose shook her head, shifting into a more comfortable position. "No, I'll stay with you. S'at okay?"

"Of course."

Rose liked to watch him in the control room. There was something so contrary and appealing to his geeky (though, he hated the word) and absentminded professor appearance getting down and dirty with mechanics. But, after a few minutes, he wasn't digging around in TARDIS parts... he was just punching in codes and watching the monitor screen. Rose sighed...

"What about Gallifreyans?"

"I wondered how long it would take you to ask." He didn't look up, but grinned.

"Oh, well, if I'm getting too predictable..." She swirled a bit of blonde hair, trying to feign boredom as she looked up at the ceiling.

He left his scans and came back to the jump seat, leaning against the console again. Rose looked at him from the corner of her eyes and saw the slight, smug smirk and gave up her act. She unfolded her legs and drew her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them to hug them to her. "So?"

"Oh, sure," he answered as he crossed his arms over his chest, going back to the question she hadn't fully asked. "There were a few Gallifreyans over the centuries who, for whatever reason and in whatever situation, cross-species bred with other similar species. There are several humanoid species in the universe, and probably a third of them or so were compatible enough at least for conception. But, the instances were few and far between since most Gallifreyans, unless they were Time Lords, never left Gallifrey." He squinched his face, making his specs go lopsided off his cheek. "Course, there was that whole _No one is as good as Gallifrey, so why would you bother _mentality."

"You don't think that." His eyes shifted to her. He didn't refute or deny her statement, so she continued. "You're always going on about how humans are thick and stupid, but then just as quick you'll tell someone how wonderful we all are."

"Potential," he said simply. "I know your potential."

"I get the impression that you were a bit of a rebel." Rose leaned forward, licking her lips. "Were you a rebel, Doctor?" She dropped her voice to her best seductive level.

His eyes stayed on her lips, but then a light flashed and something beeped and he cleared his throat before moving away again. "Gamma influx filtering nearly complete. Just a quick diagnostic of the temporal recyclers and we're all set."

"What about Time Lords?"

The Doctor raised his head and focused on some unspecified spot across the console room. "Once. _Well _, once that the Time Lord in question actually admitted the child was his and took responsibility. I suppose it may have happened at other times with other Time Lords, but no one admitted to it. The unspoken sin is the sin without punishment."

"Was that the Time Lord who was..." She knew he hadn't used the word when he told her about the Time Lord before, but it seemed to fit. "... punished? Had his TARDIS taken away and everything?"

The Doctor nodded, looking down again at his controls, his fingers slowly swirling a green crystal ball that Rose had yet to determine the purpose of. "Yep." He popped the 'p'. "Before my time when it all happened. But, I hear it was quite the hullabaloo since he hid the child and mother from the Council for years. He just never went to Gallifrey. His consequences stood as warning to us all."

"What happened?"

He looked up at her. "I told you. He was punished, had his TARDIS taken away, couldn't regenerate."

"No." Rose unfolded her legs and stood, walking over to him. A green light flashed and something beeped. The last scan was done, she figured. "What happened to the child?"

The Doctor's gaze settled on her, and Rose found herself holding her breath. She couldn't explain why. "Once the Council knew, Marnal accepted his punishment without argument and without plea, providing that he could bring his human lover and their child to Gallifrey."

"He loved her, then, yeah? He must have to give up everything."

The Doctor sniffed and looked away. "Like I said, before my time. Just heard the stories." He looked up again, and there was a tinge of sadness around his eyes and his smile had slid away. "But, yes. I imagine he loved her very much."

Rose smiled and nodded. He flipped a final switch and the engines lowered to an idle hum. They would stay like this until morning… relatively speaking. She stifled a yawn and held her hand out to him. He didn't take her hand but put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to his side as they left the console room. They entered the hall, the lights already dimming for nighttime, and as they stepped into their bedroom, Rose stopped short.

"Rose?"

She hitched her chin up to look at him, her pulse suddenly pounding violently in her throat. Rose blinked, looking at him. Intense, dark eyes stared at her… that face, that sexy, rumbled hair… him…

"Rose!"

He reached for her, his fingers nearly touching her cheek before she shook her head and stepped back. She didn't want him to see her thoughts… not yet. Not so purely and honestly as they were in her head right now. Not if they were the wrong thoughts… wrong for him.

His hand hovered near her cheek, but he didn't approach. "Rose," he said again, her name a plea to answer.

"Doctor… " She swallowed hard, her eyes burning because she'd forgotten to blink. Blindly, she found his hand and gripped it in both hers, trying desperately to temper her emotions but finding it nearly impossible when he looked at her with so much worry and concern so evident on his face. She tried again, hoping her voice would stay with her long enough. "Doctor… can you and I… could we… could we have a baby?"

His gaze slid away almost immediately. "No."

"Why not? How do you —"

He raised his head, and the cold firmness of his eyes stopped her. He swallowed, his jaw working slightly before he said, "I know."

Rose nodded, but couldn't hold back the choking sob that exploded in her chest. She just kept nodded, sucking in air, blinking the tears down her cheeks. He touched her face, stroked her cheeks, and pulled her against him, wrapping her hard in his arms.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm crying."

"I do," he whispered in her ear. He shushed softly in her ear, his hand stroking over her hair as they rocked each other in the dim hall of their TARDIS.


End file.
